


Found

by eerian_sadow



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen, Minor Injuries, Missing Children, Transformer Sparklings, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-10
Updated: 2009-04-10
Packaged: 2018-09-19 03:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9417233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: Red Alert is sent to find a missing youngling. He finds much more than he expected.





	

**Author's Note:**

> another bunny that latched on and wouldn't let go. i do need to mention, though, that i use the word "youngling" a lot in this fic. mostly, this is because i like it. but i am using "youngling" interchangably with "sparkling"--and not meaning it as an adolescent Cybertronian like a lot of the fandom seems to. i am using it as more of a regional term, and it's probably something that Red picked up from Inferno.

He cringed as the building he was searching for the lost sparkling creaked ominously around him. Everyone else on the search and rescue team had called him crazy for believing the sparkling would be here, but it was exactly the kind of place he would have hidden when he was young, hurt and scared.

He could only imagine how the youngling felt now that his safe haven was threatening to fall apart around him.

Red stepped carefully over the debris strewn across the floor, audios turned to maximum gain and sensors at their most sensitive. He wouldn’t have enough warning to get out before the building came down, if it decided to do it while he was this deep inside, but he would have time to try and find some sort of cover. His progress was slower than he would have liked, but rushing through the corridors only invited the floors to collapse under him. If he was injured, the rescue teams would not be coming after him; he had already disobeyed a direct order to stay out of the unstable building.

His cautiousness was rewarded a moment later by a pained whimper. It was so soft that he wouldn’t have heard it if he had been moving more quickly; the sound of his own footsteps would have drowned it out.

The sparkling was obviously trying very hard to stay hidden.

Red froze, waiting for the sound to be repeated so that he could figure out the direction it was coming from. His patience was rewarded by another, louder whimper from the door immediately to his left. It was a pained sound, and his spark went out to the youngling.

Carefully, hoping that he wouldn’t scare the sparkling or bring the building down around them by shifting a weight-bearing pressure point, he opened the door. His optics were immediately met by those of a very angry looking sparkling. He gave the young mech a relieved smile.

“Here you are. Your caretaker’s been worried frantic about you.”

The sparkling curled in on himself, hiding his face in his knees and exposing a brutally slashed doorwing. “I don’t care. She hurts me.”

Well _that_ was a shocking bit of information. But it also explained why the youngling had run into a condemned building in the first place—and why he had been injured before the apartment building he lived in had caught fire. “Did she do that to your wing?”

Red crept carefully into the room, not wanting to startle the sparkling into an attempt at bolting. “Yes,” the young mech replied as Red crouched down in front of him.

“If you come out of here, I can help you get away from her.” He waited until the sparkling was looking up, surprised at the statement, before adding, “All you need to do is tell the medic what you told me.”

“But where would I go?”

Red felt his spark break for the youngling. He didn’t deserve to be so scared and confused. “There are many mechs and femmes who provide safe homes to sparklings who don’t have one of their own.”

“But how will I know I can trust them?” Hope was battling with defeat on the sparkling’s face.

“Could you trust a mech who would come into a building that was about to collapse, so that he could rescue a stranger’s youngling?” Red knew that Inferno and Firestar would be angry that he hadn’t consulted them first, but they wouldn’t leave the youngling to an abusive caretaker any more than he would.

Shakily, the sparkling nodded. “What’s your name?”

“Red Alert.” He held out a hand to the sparkling, who surprised him by snuggling against him in a hug rather than taking it. He used the action as an opportunity to pick the youngling up and carry him out of the room.

“I’m Prowl,” the sparkling said, tightening his grip as he felt the older mech start moving. “Thank you for finding me.”  



End file.
